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Supper Time

A light touch, low impact addition to a home that creates a new focal point for the family: hosting the theatre of daily life as well as events including supper clubs that can now spill from house to garden.

The project was above all a collaboration with our clients who had just started a family. We began working with them during Covid lockdown. The clients wanted a central space to connect all adjacent activities and together we developed an infill extension at the rear of the Victorian property which would give coherence to the existing addition and better internal connection between the spaces at ground floor. A new dining space was conceived that would act as a ‘thread’ connecting the various spaces through which it passes. The concept echoes a ‘street party’ style of dining, where the table shifts and extends when needed, rather than being defined by a dedicated dining ‘room’. This hard working new addition allows the family to be flexible with supper clubs spilling into the kitchen and the garden when extra space is needed. The communal act of eating is central to this project and we hope many feasts will be enjoyed post-Covid.

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The new garden room nestles against the walls and openings of the existing house, using unaltered openings and resting gently against existing structure. Exposed timber and glazing encourages light to pour into the new space. The floor is a bespoke design using Bert & May floor tiles in a unique pattern inspired by external cobbled paving.

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​​The existing kitchen was retained in its existing location but usability and capacity improved with the simple insertion of a worktop and a new utility space including a shower room. The bread oven which existed in the original house, and was a

feature the clients liked about the house, is restored and celebrated with sliding pocket doors revealing glimpses of it from the snug.Natural materials were chosen and deliberately left exposed to give an external outdoor feeling to the new space. A textured plaster from Clayworks was chosen for the new walls in a warm hue and left exposed internally with the same finish internally and externally. Three gloss colours define the spaces that surround the new garden room: dark blue for the snug, yellow for the pantry and a teal for the kitchen island. The latter was chosen for it’s prominent use across South and South East Asia in kitchens and local restaurants. The client wanted to include it and after testing with nimtim, the kitchen island was identified as a good focal point for coming together over food within the new internal space.


Structural Engineers:    Foster Structures

Main Contractor:            Griffon Construction

Photography:                  Jim Stephenson
 

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